Connie Mella

Align Bank's back office & shared services functions to enterprise platform capabilities – Workflows, Content & Document Management, and CRM, while reducing the legacy, bespoke application footprint and technology currency risks. Drive adoption and continued maturity of Agile methodology for Division.

• Lead delivery of $23M product portfolio leveraging enterprise platforms – including Salesforce CRM, Appian, Sitecore, and ServiceNow. Key initiatives include: Public Website, Markets Operations Constituent Management, Financial Planning & Operations process automation.
• Launch and scale Agile squads in support of strategic products. Ensure a customer centric, outcomes focused, transition of legacy application development projects to Agile products.
• Engaged as FRBNY's technology lead for Program Orion, the Federal Reserve System-wide implementation of new ERP platform. Drove technology impact assessment, communications, implementation, and integration activities for 40+ applications to new ERP platform with zero incidents or business disruption.

Championed Bank's strategy, TechForward, with business and technology partners, drove prioritization toward enterprise solutions, and ensured continuous oversight and communication in day to day operations and portfolio execution.

• Spearheaded business portfolio planning for Core Services business lines in alignment with TechForward, promoted solution selection to enterprise first, scalable, and self-service platforms. Strengthened partnership across business and technology teams in balancing quick wins with longer term investment opportunities.
• Partnered with cross-function leaders to implement intake and demand improvements for new operating model. Consulted on future state enterprise platform squad design with key insights into business and technology landscape, and identified opportunities to redefine current portfolio verticals into shared services functions.
• Oversaw $11M+ active portfolio, served as primary escalation point between technology and business teams on projects and operations & maintenance activities, facilitated incremental improvements to achieve quality delivery and customer experience in all phases of system life cycle.

Engagement lead with Fulton County School District to assess process maturity and establish the change management plan to achieve short and long term objectives. Advised on Technology Standards, Application Lifecycle Management best practices, and incorporated Total Cost of Ownership into the planning and management of their $24M OpEx and $32M CapEx portfolio.

• Created detailed road map to improve IT intake, demand management, project execution and governance processes to increase quality, speed to market, and user adoption by start of academic year 2020-21. Standardized operations and maintenance practices to improve customer experience and system reliability, enacted system retirement strategy to transition from duplicate purpose and legacy applications to district standard technologies by start of academic year 2021-22. Expanded solution selection process to factor Total Cost of Ownership and achieve budget planning objectives.
• Launched Kanban methodology to enable transparency and team collaboration on pending and in flight work, and coached to-be Kanban champions for roll-out across IT organization.
• Conducted executive level and team workshops with public and private sector organizations to enhance leadership engagement and employee collaboration, including StrengthsFinder and Coaching the Coach themed workshops.
  

Appointed as key advisor to CIO and IT executives during company divestiture to establish new governance team, drive process alignment activities, and consolidate ownership of $180M OpEx and $70M CapEx IT budgets.

• Centralized oversight of all CapEx and OpEx IT financials and partnered with Finance to manage operational budget risks & opportunities for remaining Wyndham subsidiaries post divestiture. Provided comprehensive financial guidance and risk mitigation expertise, and engaged business liaison leaders to accelerate, shift, or prioritize incoming work to achieve financial targets.
• Created and implemented action plan to achieve $17M in cost savings over 3 years, including organization design, hardware & software maintenance, and outsourcing opportunities.
• Led staff planning during organization divestiture. Tracked incoming and outgoing IT staff of 500+ during 18 month transition, coordinated organization updates with HR, and managed hiring priority with IT leadership.
• Established consolidated metrics dashboard to track resource capitalization against plan, progress toward savings targets, impacts to business SLAs, and portfolio/project status updates.
  

As owner of $44M+ annual IT portfolio, directed the PMO to successfully execute digital and cloud transformation, end of life, data security, and compliance programs and projects. Partnered with IT and business leaders to drive improvements including holistic prioritization, capacity planning, and release management.

• Mentored and championed team of up to 30 Program and Project Managers, Agile Leaders, and Coordinators. Elevated performance expectations to lead projects in evolving organization, while cultivating team pride and shared purpose.
• Directed cross-functional leadership team to build new intake and demand management process from business prioritization to funding approval - factoring capital constraints, resource capacity, and release targets. Established forecast and resource allocation process for active and pipeline initiatives, and operational activities - providing rolling 18 month view of all IT demand and improving delivery planning.
• Instituted holistic, cross-IT staffing model for new hires and staff augmentation by proactively engaging finance, HR, people leaders, and vendors in resource planning based on pipeline demand. Streamlined review & approval process, and established role and talent standards for suppliers.
• Continuously improved PMO processes and goals to align to WVO and IT strategic intents. Set clear, measurable objectives for budget, schedule, quality thresholds, risk tolerance, communications, status reporting, change management, and PMLC/SDLC process adherence.
• Co-founded Women in IT organization to provide advocacy, development, and community engagement opportunities for associates.